Comment 2 for bug 81742

You can make VMware use ALSA instead of OSS by doing teh followng things:

(all as root, of course)

1. apt-get install alsa-oss

2. chmod u+s /usr/lib/libaoss.so*

3. Stop all the vmware daemons, for vmware server this can be done with '/etc.init.d/vmware stop'.
    It might be different with vmware player or workstation, so make double sure they are *all* stopped.

3. cd /usr/lib/vmware/bin
    IMPORTANT!!! the files might be in a different directory on your syste, depending on whether
    you are using vmware server, player or workstation. whatever the directory is, it should have
    the binary executable file vmware-vmx in it.

4. create file vmware-vmx.sh and add the following lines to the file:

        #!/bin/sh
        #
        LD_PRELOAD=libaoss.so exec /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx.orig "$@"

    IMPORTANT!!! remember to replace the /usr/lib/vmware/bin with the actual path that vmware-vmx is on your system

5. chmod u+rs,g+rx,o+rx,ugo-w vmware-vmx.sh

6. mv vmware-vmx vmware-vmx.orig

7. mv vmware-vmx.sh vmware-vmx

8. In your individual VM serttings, change the sound card to use one of 'Autodetect' or '/dev/dsp'

9. Restart all the vmware daemons, e.g. '/etc/init.d/vmware start'.

While this works and you can now use your normal ALSA volume control like the one on the GNOME panel in the default Ubuntu set-up, I would not recommend it unless you absolutely must have sound access for multiple VMs.

For me, the sound with the ALSA-wrapped OSS is stuttered and choppy for a single WinXP VM given a gig of RAM running under 8.04 on a 3.6GHz Xeon Irwindale with 4 gigs of RAM. The default OSS sound, however, with none of the above changes, is perfectly solid.

I think we just need to get on VMware's tail and get them to upgrade how VMware does sound.